Goodman Theater Announces Final Addition to 2011/12 Subscription Season

Goodman Theatre announces the final addition to its 2011/2012 Subscription Season-New Stages Amplified  a series of three never-before-seen works in modestly-scaled developmental productions in the intimate Owen Theatre. New  Stages Amplified builds on the success of theater's long-running free new play festival New Stages, which has birthed 47  new plays over the past decade-more than half of which have gone on to receive full productions at the Goodman and  other venues across the country. The three selected New Stages Amplified works include:

Dartmoor Prison by Carlyle Brown directed by Chay Yew (October 13 - 23),

Chicago Boys by Kathleen Tolan, directed by Ann Filmer (October 27 - November  6)  

Ask Aunt Susan by Seth Bockley , directed by Joanie Schultz (November 10 - 20).

Each Goodman subscriber sees one play as part of their subscription series; additional tickets may be purchased at a discount. The audience is invited to  give feedback in a post-show discussion forum with the artists. Tickets to New Stages Amplified are now available by  subscription only: five-play Albert Theatre subscriptions start at $105; eight-play Albert and Owen Theatre subscriptions start  at $168. Call 312.443.3800 or visit ExploreTheGoodman.org. Individual tickets ($10 and $25) go on sale August 12 (web). 

"We're thrilled to continue our commitment to supporting writers in the creation of ambitious new works for the stage," said  Tanya Palmer, the Goodman's Director of New Play Development. "The plays featured in New Stages Amplified have all  emerged out of our new play development programs: Carlyle Brown's play Dartmoor Prison is a Goodman Theatre  commission that received a reading as part of the 2008 New Stages Series; Chicago Boys was developed in our New Stages
Series earlier this year, and Ask Aunt Susan was written during our inaugurAl Goodman Playwright's Unit, a residency  program for Chicago-based playwrights. All three writers are grappling with big, complex ideas and a unique theatrical  language and these productions represent a critical next step in helping them to realize their visions."

Carlyle Brown's Dartmoor Prison is a journey into Britain's most notorious holding pen for prisoners of war and domestic criminals during the War of 1812, including "King Dick"-an African American sailor whose life at sea has provided him with remarkable personal freedom at a time when millions of enslaved Africans are still held in bondage. Captured by the British, King Dick becomes the absolute ruler of a segregated prison yard. But when a group of American prisoners from a nearby  white yard ask him to join forces with them to celebrate the 4th of July-an event forbidden by their British captors-King Dick  must confront the broader meaning of freedom and patriotism, and whether he and his fellow black sailors can find a home somewhere beyond the sea.

Set in the 1970s in Chicago and Santiago, Chile, Kathleen Tolan's Chicago Boys tells the story of Joe, a young American economist and--protégé of legendary University of Chicago professor Milton Friedman--who travels to Chile to promote free- market economics. When a coup erupts and political power shifts, mass killings and disappearances soon follow, and the new military regime enlists los Chicago Boys-a group of Chilean economists trained at the University of Chicago-to help them develop a capitalist economy. Joe's allegiances should be clear, but when he falls in love with a woman whose brother is one of the disappeared, he quickly finds that theory and practice collide in a very messy world.

In Ask Aunt Susan, a wry new comedy from playwright Seth Bockley, a 20-something man moonlights as Aunt Susan, an online guru offering advIce To women on everything from boyfriends to back problems. Ask Aunt Susan becomes the web's hottest spot for self-help, even as Aunt Susan's boss, a reckless funder, hopes to profit from the women's woes. As the website grows, so does Aunt Susan's web of deceit-and soon the Ask Aunt Susan phenomenon is much bigger than one man could have imagined. This irreverent new play explores anonymity, authenticity and the unwieldy world of the web.

About the Plays and Artists in the Goodman Theater

RED

Full-blooded and visceral, the Tony Award-winning Red takes you into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for whom paintings are "pulsating" life forces and art is intended to stop the heart. Red chronicles the tormented painter's two- year struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan's exclusive Four Seasons restaurant, and his fraught
relationship with a seemingly naïve young assistant, who must choose between appeasing his mentor and changing the course of art history. Set amid the swiftly-changing cultural tide of the early 1960s, Red is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame, a play hailed as "intense and exciting" by The New York Times. ComEd is the official Lighting
Sponsor for Red. A Season Opening Benefit, in conjunction with Red, takes place on September 27, 2011 at the Art Institute of Chicago's Modern Wing. For tickets and more information about the Season Opening Benefit, call 312.443.5564.

RACE 
By David Mamet Directed by Chuck Smith
Directed by Chuck Smith

January 14 - February 19, 2012

This latest work by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet ruthlessly examines guilt and oppression via a compelling crime  mystery. Two high-profile lawyers-one black, one white-are called to defend a wealthy white client charged with the rape of an African American woman, but soon find themselves embroiled in a complex case in which blatant prejudice is as  disturbing as the evidence at hand. With characteristic bluntness, Mamet leaves nothing unsaid in this no-holds-barred  suspense story which the Chicago Tribune declared "intellectually salacious."

CAMINO REAL

By Tennessee Williams Directed by Calixto Bieito March 3 - April 8, 2012

Tennessee Williams' hauntingly poetic allegory takes us to the mysterious Camino Real, a surreal netherworld populated by a colorful collection of lost souls anxious to escape but terrified of the unknown wasteland lurking beyond the city's walls. When Kilroy, an American traveler and former boxer inadvertently lands in Camino Real, he sets off on a phantasmagoric
venture through illusion and temptation in an attempt to flee its confines-and defy his grim destiny. Called "one of Williams' most imaginative plays" by The New York Times, Camino Real is a sensual carnival of desire and desperation.

For a complete performance schedule of the 2011 - 2012 Season, please visit: ExploreTheGoodman.org

ABOUT THE Goodman Theatre

Now Celebrating A Decade on Dearborn the Goodman Theatre, "the leading regional theater in the nation's most important theater city" (Time), is a major cultural, educational and economic pillar in Chicago, generating nearly $300 million in economic impact over the past decade in its
state-of-the-art two-theater complex on North Dearborn Street. Founded in 1925 and currently under the leadership of  Artistic Director Robert Falls, "Chicago's most essential director" (Chicago Tribune), and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit resident theater has experienced unprecedented success over the past 10 years  in its new downtown facility, welcoming nearly two million patrons to productions and events-including 10 festivals  celebrating playwrights such as David Mamet, August Wilson and Horton Foote, as well as the biennial Latino Theatre  Festival-serving 30 percent more students through its Education and Community Engagement programs (including the FREE Student Subscription Series and other interactive programs) and employing more than 3,000 artists and theater professionals. The Goodman has earned more than 90 awards for hundreds of productions, including the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined by Lynn Nottage-one of 25 new-work Goodman commissions in the last decade. The Chairman of Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees is Patricia Cox and Joan Clifford is President of the Women's Board. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre.

Goodman's Blog, Goodman-Theatre.Blogspot.com/; Friend us at Facebook.com/GoodmanTheatre; Follow us at Twitter.com/GoodmanTheatre and peek behind-the-scenes at YouTube.com/TheGoodmanTheatre.

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